Name: Magic Zoom

Price: £25 (1 license)

Update: 6/10/08 This review refers to an outdated version of Magic Zoom. You can find a review for the latest version here.

Magic Zoom, previously named Lucky Zoom, is undeniably cool. This tool allows the client to quickly view a close up of a thumbnail image. As a result it provides an innovative solution to let visitors check out larger versions of thumb nails.

It is easy to use, the magic zoom website provides instructions for a standard, Joomla, Virtuemart and X-Cart installs. Furthermore the site provides instructions on how to customise the positioning, image size, border and colours. All of this is easy on the brain and the implementation is easy.

I was impressed by the fact that page load times were unaffected. The page loads first, then the large images used by the feature. This is works out very nicely. Another positive is that it is very unobtrusive. Lightbox and other display methods block out or take the user away from your web page. This tool avoids this. Its neat, its tidy and its compact. Furthermore it displays above your layout meaning that you do not need to allocate space for it in a design.

However there are some problems with this bit of kit. Firstly, there is no loading screen. This means that if you have a slow connection nothing will happen for a long time and all you will be able to see is a small image. This is far from ideal and the problem grows as you put more boxes onto the webpage. There are solutions which could be added. A loading icon could appear in a corner of the small image. Alternatively when the image is clicked, a pop up could appear. Both of these would solve with this problem. However neither are included and you would need to code this yourself.

The next thing is working out what to use it for. If you wish to display larger versions of an image you can use lightbox or a simple javascript pop up. Both do the job and are free. While this tool looks great, it doesn’t provide an option to view the complete image. As a result the uses are somewhat limited.

If the makers can find a way to provide a solution for slow connections and add an option to view the whole image then I would highly recommend this product. Until this time I would only recommend this if you have a broadband based audience. Otherwise stick with established, free alternatives such as Lightbox.

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